We are interested in exploring the history of African Americans in the United States using the available census data. To do this, I have used the ‘Get Your Data’ Shiny tool to find three different .csv files relating to the population of African Americans in U.S. states. There are three different files because the census uses different words to refer to African Americans at different points in history. Because of these changes, one file contains variable names that use the term ‘slave’, one file contains variable names that use the term ‘colored’, and the third contains variable names that use the term ‘negro’. These files are in the ‘inst’ folder in statatlas.

1790

1800

1810

1820

1830

1840

1850

Since we are in 1850 now, and many states have abolished slavery at this point, it may be interesting to look at just total population. Even though we can look at comparing the number of slaves in all the states and the number of free persons in all the states, we haven’t looked at just a total count of how many African Americans live in various states.

1860

This is the only year the word ‘black’ is used to describe any part of the population, and they have ‘NATIVE’ vs. ‘FOREIGN’ born. This may be something interesting to look into, but I am not going to look into it at the moment.

Again, since we are getting to the point where many states are completely free states, it may be interesting to look at just total numbers of African Americans. Being able to see how the African American population shifts around in states as slavery becomes abolished in certain areas - and soon after, in all states - tells us an interesting story as well.

1870

This is an important point in time. Slavery was abolished in the mid-1960’s, so by the 1870 census we should see a dramatic shift in the slave population and the free population - there shouldn’t even be a ‘slave’ variable at all.

1880

1890 - we are waiting on this. Data is not confirmed as correct.

1900

1910

1920

1930

1940 - we are waiting on this. Data is not confirmed as correct.

1950

1960